Old-school brain surgery

The Wellcome Trust has put its collection of old medical films online. This fascinating video shows early neurosurgery – an operation in 1933 to remove a tumour from the frontal lobe.

We don’t understand the brain that well even now, but imagine undergoing this kind of procedure only ten years after they had figured out how to put sound convincingly alongside film. They’re not exactly delicate about it so it’s not one for the faint of heart/hungover – you have been warned.